The present invention relates to a flame retardant comprising ethylenediamine-zinc phosphate and another phosphorus-containing compound and a flame retardant resin composition formulated with the same. The flame retardant resin composition formulated with the flame retardant of the invention is of high performance having excellent flame retardant and smoke suppressant properties and generating no hazardous gas, and is used extensively as a material for electronics, construction, transport and household materials, etc.
Although plastic materials are used in many industrial applications, because of their inflammability, flame retardants are formulated to plastic materials to afford the flame retardancy.
As the flame retardants used so far, there are phosphorus-based flame retardants such as a phosphoric ester, ammonium polyphosphate and red phosphorus, halogen-based flame retardants such as tetrabromobisphenol A, decabromodiphenyl oxide and chlorinated paraffin, inorganic flame retardants such as magnesium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, and the like. Thereamong, halogen-based flame retardants are excellent in the flame retardancy and are used widely.
However, resins formulated with halogen-based flame retardants have problems of releasing hazardous halogen-containing gas and generating much smoke on combustion. The generation of hazardous gas and smoke increases the risk of disaster on fire, resulting in injury or death, hence the safety of materials has become an important technology together with flame-retarding technology.
Moreover, the inorganic flame retardants release no hazardous gas during thermal decomposition and are materials excellent in the smoke suppressant effect, but they are not necessarily satisfactory in the point of flame retardancy.
Furthermore, ammonium polyphosphate is a material that generates no toxic gas during thermal decomposition, but it is the present situation that it is not necessarily satisfactory in the points of flame retardancy, water resistance, etc.
The invention was made in view of the problems aforementioned, and the purpose thereof is to propose a new high-performance flame retardant having excellent flame retardancy and smoke suppressant effect and generating no hazardous gas, and a new flame retardant resin composition using it.
As a result of diligent investigations for developing a flame retardant resin composition having excellent flame retardant and smoke suppressant properties and generating no hazardous gas, particularly putting an emphasis on the development of a high-performance flame retardant, the inventors have found that a flame retardant comprising ethylenediamine-zinc phosphate and another phosphorus containing compound is excellent in the flame retardancy, and a flame retardant resin composition formulated with this flame retardant is the high-performance flame retardant resin composition having excellent flame retardant and smoke suppressant properties and generating no hazardous gas, leading to the completion of the invention.